Suzuki Shonen (1849-1918)
鈴木松年

Suzuki Shonen was born in Kyoto as son of Suzuki Hyakunen (1825-1891) who established his own style of painting without adhering to any of the established styles such as the Shijo-Maruyama, nanga or Kano schools. Shonen is considered the best student of Hyakunen's, and was known for his bold and dramatic brushstrokes. From 1881 to 1888 Shônen was the head of the Northern Division (ink painting in the Sesshu tradition) of the Kyoto Prefecture Painting School (other divisions were: South - nanga school; East - Shijô-Maruyama school; and West - Western style painting).
Shonen appears to have been satisfied with cultivating his own art on the eve of sweeping modernisation in Japanese painting, which, in Kyoto, was led by Takeuchi Seiho, a pupil of Shonen's rival and a Shijô artist Kono Bairei.
Thus his name is less often associated with the modern movements of Japanese painting than with Uemura Shoen, one of his most talented students and the most prominent female painter of the Meiji period.

References:
Morioka Michiyo, Modern Masters of Kyoto: The Transformation of Japanese Painting Traditions, Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection, exh. cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1999), pp. 106-11.
Collector's catalogue: The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales; Jackie Menzies (Australia); 2003, pp. 274-275 (colour illus.)
Roberts. A dictionary of Japanese Artists. New York 1976. p.167.
Mitchell, C.H. A biobibliography. Los Angeles 1972. p.163.